Tag: Democrats

Why You Should Care About Florida’s Primary

Trish

You might already know the facts, but here they are again: Florida’s majority Republican legislature passed a bill earlier this year changing the state’s primary to Jan. 29. This placed the Florida election ahead of Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, and good old New Hampshire, which is a violation of both Republican and Democratic party rules.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) punished Florida by taking away half its delegates to the 2008 Republican convention. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) took away all Florida’s delegates and made the Democratic frontrunners sign a pledge not to campaign in Florida. The pledge does not prohibit fund-raising.

Before, it looked like all Democrats needed to do to win in 2008 was show up — but we can’t even do that right

The DNC offered Florida Democratic party leaders a deal: if you nullify the results of the statewide Jan. 29 primary and hold party caucuses, pay-per-vote straw polls like Iowa, or some other behind-the-scenes event with extremely limited participation on Feb. 5, we will forgive you.

FDP leaders, wisely, went with “no deal.” They argue correctly that there is more for Florida voters to decide on Jan. 29 than just presidential preference, and besides, your average voter (like me) doesn’t agree that his or her vote should be tossed in favor of those from Democratic party insiders.

Here’s why you should care. The DNC, in refusing to allow candidates to campaign in Florida, is throwing the 2008 election to the Republicans. Picture it: months of TV spots with Rudy and Mitt telling Florida voters why we should love them, but also increasingly hammering away at Hillary, Barack, and John. Headlines like, “Thompson Eats Fried Gator Tail at Rotary Picnic” and “McCain Tours Military Base.”

And on the Democratic side? Silence, broken only the occasional dive for dollars at private parties.

“You’re going to continue to see Republican candidates coming to Florida, shaking hands, listening to voters,” said Erin Van Sickle, a Florida Republican Party spokeswoman.

Said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University and expert on Southern politics: “It’s a huge power struggle within the Democratic Party that cannot help the party’s candidates in Florida.

“But having nobody come to Florida, that’s theater of the absurd,” he added.

The fourth biggest state in the country, always a toss-up, is abandoned — no, handed on a silver platter — to the Republicans. And why? Because national Democrats have their panties in a wad over something Florida Democrats can’t change: the legislatively mandated election date.

If there was ever a time for the DNC to get its head out of its ass, the time is now. As Ben Weaver, North Florida Regional Director for the Florida Young Democrats, noted, before it looked like all Democrats needed to do to win in 2008 was show up. And we can’t even do that right!

Frustration with the DNC, and the candidates who fear losing its funding, is high.

Republicans have been aggressively mobilizing and courting Florida voters, while Democratic candidates have been wary of doing anything to antagonize party leaders in those early nominating states.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign even refused recently to send a letter of greeting to a Jackson County Democratic picnic for fear of violating his pledge to the four early states.

And all the front-runners, even those who originally accepted, have now declined invitations to the state party convention in Orlando at the end of October.

But Weaver, and quite a few others, are betting that Florida will get its delegates back even if the DNC rigidly stays the course, as they say they will. He thinks that on the first day of the national convention the front-runner will reinstate our 210 delegates in a show of party unity. I hope it won’t be too late by then, that too many Floridians will have only heard the GOP’s side of things for so long that they’ve tuned out whatever last-minute campaigning the Democrats engage in. If so, Howard Dean can take the credit for blowing it — again.

If They Weren’t Republicans, I’d Feel Sorry for Them

Buck Banks

Seems the news from the GOP side of the aisle just keeps getting better and better or worse and worse, depending on your orientation:

Top Republicans are privately bracing for the possibility that they could lose additional House seats in next year’s elections as a result of untimely retirements, ongoing scandals and unexpectedly gloomy fundraising forecasts, according to several members and aides.

It seems every day brings more bad news for Republicans. As Politico first reported Friday, House Majority Leader John Boehner and his campaign chief, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, are at war over campaign tactics and operations. Boehner is demanding a major shake-up at the National Republican Congressional Committee.

If the election were held this November, Republicans would be in for a disastrous result.

And besides being morally bankrupt as a political party, the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is charged with getting GOPers elected to Congress, is literally broke. As in having more debt than cash.

At the end of August, the National Republican Congressional Committee reported only $1.6 million cash on hand, with $4 million in debt. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, by comparison, had banked over $22 million, with only $3 million in debt.

Of course, a popular Republican presidential candidate could pull in the big bucks and help hold some jeopardized congressional seats, but the key word there is “popular.” Unfortunately for the Repugs, a recent Mason-Dixon poll found that Undecided is running neck and neck with Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. That’s not going to energize the base.

A popular incumbent president could also be of some fundraising use to the GOP, but George W. Bush has become a pariah to his party, and is widely hated by Democrats and Republicans alike.

“If the election were held this November, Republicans would be in for a disastrous result,” said Cook Political Report House analyst David Wasserman. “The thinking goes: It will have to be another cycle before Republicans get their act together.”

Excuse me for being gleeful, but it looks bad for the Republicans. The only downside is that it looks good for the Democrats, who have shown they don’t know what to do with a majority when they get one. And they’d rather circle up for a firing squad than loosen their stupid rules on primary dates. Too bad it’s probably going to take another election cycle before the Dems get their act together, too.

Maybe If Karen Thurman Had Said ‘Pretty Please’

Buck Banks

It seems the Florida Democratic Party just gets patheticker and patheticker. According to the Politico, state Chair Karen Thurman, in an effort to make the party’s October state convention at least marginally meaningful compared with its totally meaningless January primary, wrote to the four early-primary states to ask them to permit the Dem prez candidates to attend the convention.

Maybe Karen and Co. can console themselves with a ride on ‘It’s a Small World’ or a visit to ‘Country Bear Jamboree.’

See, following the Democratic National Committee’s smack-down of the the Florida Dems for moving the state’s primary to Jan. 29, ahead of the Feb. 5 earliest-allowed date, the four leading Dem candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in the state unless FlaDems fixed the date thingy. The state party leaders are supposed to teleconference next Saturday and come up with a final solution to the mess before the Sept. 29 5 p.m. deadline. Nothing like leaving it to the last possible minute.

In the meantime, Thurman asked the lead states — Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina — to allow the candidates to come to Disney World for the FlaDem convention next month. (Appropriate venue, no?) The answer? No way, not until you folks get together a “compliant” plan to render your primary meaningless. One wonders why Thurman didn’t wait until after the party had figured out what it was going to do before crawling hat in hands to the early states. But then, one wonders often at Thurman’s behavior. For instance, why wait until just hours before the deadline to convene the party leadership to discuss what to do about Jan. 29.

Here’s the hard-assed letter signed by reps of the four states:

The Hon. Karen Thurman September 18th, 2008
Chair, Florida Democratic Party
Dear Congresswoman Thurman,

The Florida Democratic Party has requested that candidates who signed the “Four-State Pledge” with Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina attend their Democratic Convention in October. We understand from the Florida Democratic Party that this is an important event for them.

Each candidate signed the pledge and indicated they understood that the intention of the pledge is to bring finality, predictability and common sense to the nominating calendar. The pledge refers to the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Committee, including, but not limited to, Rule 20 c 1 b.

These rules hold true for any state infringing on the pre-window. Candidates have signed a pledge to honor the calendar with regard to the pre-window and that applies to all states moving forward.

[…]

Maybe Democrats Should Take Spanish Lessons — from the Republicans

Buck Banks

In a breathless e-mail I received Tuesday, Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman wrote of the previous Sunday night’s Univision Democratic presidential debate (emphasis added):

On Sunday night, Democrats made history at the University of Miami when, for the first time, our presidential candidates directly addressed the issues of the Hispanic community in Spanish.

Sitting in the arena, I was surrounded by hundreds of prominent Democrats from across the country and more than a thousand students. An almost euphoric excitement filled the room. The momentous event reached a record 4.6 million viewers via the Univision television network — more than any other debate or forum this year.

Besides her overblown prose, Thurman also overstated the viewership, which was more like 2.2 million — less than the Fox Network’s Republican prez debate a week earlier.

Amusing malaprops and glaring grammatical mistakes mar the Spanish language websites of the Democratic presidential candidates.

It seems typical of the Democratic Party’s approach to what seemingly every pundit and their consultant was referring to as “Latino Power” after the debate (which ignores the fact that most Cubans and Latin Americans in my part of the country hate being called “Latino”), which is to exaggerate its efforts to woo Hispanic voters away from what appears to be a vacuum on the Republican side. But more on that later.

La Politica is a new publication that is set to debut Nov. 5 and provide analysis of the Hispanic-wooing efforts of the candidates for the ensuing year before the elections. The publisher is sending around a prototype PDF of the magazine to potential advertisers and subscribers. It looks both promising — and uncompromising. I particularly enjoyed its analysis of the Democratic presidential candidates’ efforts to cage a little of that “Latino Power” thing:

Amusing malaprops and glaring grammatical mistakes mar the Spanish language websites of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Hector Orcí, chairman of Hispanic marketing agency La Agencia de Orcí & Asociados, derides the websites as “not particularly interesting, nor effective, nor well-written … If they were doing as bad a job in English as they are doing in Spanish, none of the candidates would get elected with the exception of Bill Richardson.”

Although the article goes on to point out that Richardson’s Web site is rife with errors, too:

Spanish is obviously the second language of the campaign´s Spanish-language blogger whose very first post includes the phrase “Bill Richardson está corriendo porque quiere ser el próximo presidente.” In Spanish, unlike English, you cannot write a candidate is ”running” for office. Yet, the writer opted for the literal translation of “running” as “corriendo.” The second sentence of the second post manages to misspell five words. The third post includes a videotaped testimonial by Rep. Ben Luján, speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives, who praises the Governor for “dando relief en los tax issues.”

[…]

Selective Enforcement: Dean Seems O.K. with Rich, White New Hampshire Changing Primary Date

Trish

Another state is vowing to move its primary forward so it can be at the head of the line in determining the next presidential candidates. You know what that means: lots of blustering from DNC Chair Howard Dean about taking away their delegates and refusing to count their votes at the national nominating convention.

New Englander Howard Dean has no righteous indignation over New Hampshire moving up its primary date in violation of DNC rules

Except the state in question is New Hampshire and New Englander Howard Dean is strangely silent on the matter. The lack of righteous indignation has drawn its own attention from Democratic Senators Bill Nelson (Fla.), Carl Levin (Mich.) and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), who have lodged a protest.

New Hampshire is talking about moving its Jan. 22 primary to stay ahead of Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary and South Carolina Republicans’ January 19 primary and the DNC is saying nothing, the letter said…

Democratic Party rules say states cannot hold their 2008 primary contests before Feb. 5, except for Iowa on Jan. 14, Nevada on Jan. 19, New Hampshire on Jan. 22 and South Carolina on Jan. 29.

Why is New Hampshire, the 41st most populous of the 50 states, so important to the primary process? It’s certainly not because of the diversity of its residents, nor their reflection of the country as a whole, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

New Hampshire Florida America
Population 1,314,895 18,089,888 299,398,484
Whites 96.1% 80.4% 80.2%
Blacks 1.0% 15.7% 12.8%
Hispanic/Latino* 2.2% 19.5% 14.4%
Asians 1.7% 2.1% 4.3%
Median HH Income $53,377 $40,900 $44,334

* Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories.

It makes me wonder if all that sputtering about respecting the process is really about protecting somebody’s idea about rich white folks needing to go first. How very undemocratic of the DNC.

Should Florida Democrats Change Parties?

Trish

If the Democrats don’t want my Florida votes, they can’t have my Florida money.

That’s what I’m telling everyone who calls or emails me for support — and I’m on a lot of calling and email lists — until the party makes up its mind whether to count Florida’s votes in the coming primary.

Maxwell: I figure if your party won’t count your vote, join one that will

The presidential preference election was moved by the Florida legislature to Jan. 29,* putting it ahead of four other states and causing the DNC to turn all red in the face like your dad did when you came home late and woke him up. They threatened to ground us until the general election by denying us delegates at the national convention. They also forced Democratic candidates to agree not to campaign in Florida, although that hasn’t stopped them from coming here for fundraisers.

Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell is putting forth an even bolder solution than my purse strings strategy: change parties. Maxwell points out that the RNC, while also upset about the primary move, is only threatening to take away half of Florida’s GOP delegates.

I figure: If your party won’t count your vote, join one that will.

Seriously, Democrats. March down to your elections office and become a Republican.

That way, come January, you can vote — for the Republican you like best, the one you dislike the least or, if you wanna be sneaky about it, you can even vote for the Republican that you think would be the easiest for a Democrat to beat in November.

Whatever way you do it, your vote will count — at least more than it would as a Democrat if the national folks follow through with their threat.

What’s more, after you vote Republican, you can switch back — and vote in the regular Democratic primaries in September…

Admittedly, the Florida Democratic Party wasn’t too keen on my idea.

Said party spokesman Mark Bubriski: “I don’t know how any Democrat, no matter how understandably angry they may be, could justify switching to the party of Katherine Harris, Larry Craig, David Vitter, Bob Allen, Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby, Tom Feeney, et cetera based on an internal party dispute over a primary election.”

That’s not a bad sound bite. Too bad hardly anyone’s going to hear it.

That’s because the Democrats seem too busy doing what they often do so well: becoming their own worst enemy.

I have news for Mark. This is more than an internal party dispute since it affects whether my vote will count. And in many ways, the primary is more important than the general election. That’s the very reason it was moved up. But that attitude by our party leaders is why most of us rank and file Democrats are as fired up as my dad used to get when he caught me coming in after midnight.

Update: Thanks to my new BFF, Anonymous, for noting the correct date of the presidential preference primary. The post has been edited accordingly.

Neuroscience Study: Smart Brains Have Liberal Bias

Jon Ponder

A new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience not only suggests that the brains of liberals and conservatives are wired differently — as many have long suspected — but also that liberals’ brains are more adept at processing new ideas:

The study suggests that liberals are more open to new social, scientific and religious ideas.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results show “there are two cognitive styles — a liberal style and a conservative style,” said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research.

The study asked subjects to rate their political leanings on continuum of 5 (conservative) to -5 (liberal). The experiment required the subjects to
make quick decisions:

Out of the 500 trials that each subject completed, he or she was presented with the same letter 80 percent of the time. This meant that the participants felt compelled to press the same button repeatedly.

“You keep seeing the same stimulus over and over, so when the opposite stimulus comes on it’s always a surprise,” says [David Amodio, the study’s lead author].

When the less common letter did appear on the screen, the people who identified themselves as more conservative (rating themselves somewhere between 1 and 5 on the initial questionnaire) pressed the “usual” button 47 percent of the time instead of switching to the correct button.

By comparison, the “liberals” who placed themselves between -5 and -1 on the questionnaire responded more readily to the new signal and achieved the slightly lower error rate of 37 percent.

Brain recordings taken using electroencephalogram (EEG) technology showed that liberals had twice as much activity in a deep region called the anterior cingulate cortex. This area of the brain is thought to act as a mental brake by helping the mind recognize “no-go” situations where it must refrain from the usual course of action.

Liberals were much better at dealing with and resolving conflicts in the experiment:

Analyzing the data, [Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study] said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.

The study suggests that liberals are more open to new social, scientific and religious ideas, Sulloway said. He pointed to the historical record, saying, “There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science.”

Speaking up for conservative brains, study author Amodio said it would be a mistake to conclude that liberal brains are better than conservatives’. He suggested that the tendency of conservatives to block distracting information could be a good thing, depending on the situation.

Really? That is an interesting assertion because it is impossible to imagine a situation in which ignoring pertinent information could produce a useful analysis.

The study seems to verify another assumption many on the left have made about conservatives: They are easily fooled.

Richardson: God Picked the Primary Dates

Trish

God reveals the primary dates to Moses

The primary situation is getting downright comical, even as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) pledges to veto any bill that would un-do the recent move to a Feb. 5 election.

That declaration comes after my previous pick, John Edwards, insulted my home state.

Comment from God: “I’ve decided to call Bill Richardson home. And maybe that short ugly guy from Ohio too.”

“This election, more than any other, is about real change and choosing the candidate who is going to fight for that change,” Edwards said in a statement released by his campaign Saturday. “Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina need to be first because in these states ideas count, not just money.”

All righty then. I’ve already written the Edwards campaign to ask for my tainted Florida money back.

But the topper has got to be Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) Richardson’s claim that God Himself chose the primary dates is explored in a hilarious post on the Tampa Tribune’s blog, the Buzz.

God Likes Democratic Boycott of Florida

Well, He didn’t tell us that directly. But Bill Richardson says there’s divine support for Iowa’s status in the nominating process:

“Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord, should be the first caucus and primary,” Richardson, New Mexico’s governor, said at the Northwest Iowa Labor Council Picnic. “And I want you to know who was the first candidate to sign a pledge not to campaign anywhere if they got ahead of Iowa. It was Bill Richardson.”

Readers are having a field day making comments about Bill’s obviously caught up and overwrought oration.

[…]

Florida Democratic Party Update: Sit Tight, Trust Us

Buck Banks

I received this inane message from Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman this morning:

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. As you may have heard, on Friday and Saturday, the Democratic Presidential candidates signed a pledge to not campaign in any state, other than the four pre-authorized states (IA, NV, NH, SC), that holds its primary prior to Feb. 5, 2008. Of course, Florida’s state-run Presidential Preference Primary is scheduled for one week prior to that date. This came on the heels of a DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting to penalize Florida Democrats with a 100 percent delegate reduction if our delegates are not selected on Feb. 5 or later.

This is obviously a difficult situation, but I want to assure you that your Party, Democratic Congressional Delegation, DNC members and other Democratic leaders are working hard to find a solution that is amenable to the DNC, the Chairs of the four pre-authorized states, the candidates and, most of all, Florida Democrats. We hope to be making an announcement in the coming weeks.

Until then, we strongly encourage you to keep your eyes on the prize and continue moving forward with laying the groundwork for victory in November 2008. Use that voter file, talk to your friends and neighbors, sign up to be a delegate to the state convention, and get involved. These intra-party discussions shouldn’t distract us from the real goal or let the Republicans get the upper hand. No matter which cards we’re dealt, we must deliver our state’s 27 electoral votes — and the Presidency — to the Democratic nominee. The country needs us.

Stay tuned for more information. Thank you for your hard work.

-KLT

Hear that sucking sound? It’s the Florida Democratic Party’s leadership vacuum.

Let the train wreck begin!

Big Daddy DNC Doles Out Discipline

Buck Banks

In a rare demonstration of forthrightness, the Democratic National Committee’s spokeswoman let slip how the DNC actually perceives its state counterparts while she explained why the committee was whupping up on Florida for moving its primary to Jan. 29:

‘If you don’t enact the punishment, it also sends a signal to other children that they can get away with it, too.’

Stacie Paxton, press secretary for the DNC, said Florida’s penalty is meant in part as a lesson to other states weighing earlier primary dates, and she likened the measure to schoolyard discipline. “You can say to a child, ‘You’re going to receive a punishment,’ ” she says. “But if you don’t enact the punishment, it also sends a signal to other children that they can get away with it, too.”

Of course, one could argue that the “leadership” of the Florida Democratic Party is indeed a pretty bratty bunch and about as effective as a group of third-graders. Here they are responding to the punishment news:

Florida Democrats have gone on the offensive, with top leaders denouncing the national party and threatening legal action. “We cannot go along with anything but the state-run primary set for next January,” Florida’s 10 congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Bill Nelson, said in a statement last week. “We strongly encourage all Democrats to vote for their preferred nominee in that primary, regardless of whatever penalties the DNC might enact.”

That doesn’t sound much like offense, does it? Instead, it sounds like the Fla Dems just punted.